PM confirms skilled migrant proposal under review

Prime Minister Bill English has confirmed the government is reviewing proposed changes to skilled migrant visas after complaints from businesses and the regions.

Prime Minister Bill English Photo: RNZ / Brad White

However, he said farmers needed to invest more in people and training.

The government had been set bring in new rules on 14 August that would have meant low-skilled migrants would have to leave New Zealand after three years.

They would be unable to return for a time before being eligible to work in New Zealand again, and people would also need to earn at least $48,000 a year to qualify as high-skilled migrants, thereby avoiding the stand-down period, under the new rules.

However, the changes have been criticised by farmers and fruit-growers, who often rely on a low-waged, often seasonal, labour force.

Mr English told Morning Report he would not describe the delay as a U-turn or a backdown.

Asked if it was caving to a farming industry which wanted cheap labour, he said the government had to "be careful with this to get the balance, because industries are always going to want to get access to the labour on tap if they possibly can".

"They have to invest more in the people and training people who don't have the skills," he said.

"We put out a proposal that was based on making sure that Kiwis get the jobs when they should, that we get a better balance of skills coming in.

"We've had some feedback from people who are in an economy that is creating 10,000 jobs a month and they were telling us that some of those parameters are a bit tight."

He said decisions would be made in the next couple of weeks.

"There is so much work to be done that has to be done building the hosues, building the infrastructure, getting the primary production out of horticulture and the dairy industry and so on and we don't want to handicap ourselves by over-reaching."

The government announced yesterday it would be setting up a new agency to speed up the building of housing, starting with a fund of $600 million.